HCL Technologies signs three-year contract with UK retailer Asda

<p><strong>HCL Technologies (HCL)</strong>, on September 20 signed a three-year contract to drive IT transformation at the United Kingdom's third-largest grocery retailer, Asda.</p> <p>The application services contract will include HCL transforming Asda&rsquo;s IT application services with a new <strong>DevOps </strong>delivery model to drive data and analytics and support back-office applications through the full lifecycle of development, testing and support.</p> <p><strong>DevOps</strong> is a software engineering culture and practice that aims at unifying software development and software operation.</p> <p>&ldquo;Today&rsquo;s grocery retail market is highly competitive and the increasing trend towards online shopping and in-store digitalisation puts more pressure than ever on IT to accelerate innovation," said<strong> Ashish Gupta, Corporate Vice President, at HCL Technologies.</strong></p> <p><strong>HCL </strong>will also build a central data management platform to enable Asda to improve its insight and analytics capabilities, it said in a statement.</p> <p>"As organizations embark on a digital transformation with technology increasingly driving the business, it&rsquo;s critical that we have the agility to respond quickly to changing needs, particularly in capabilities such as Data and Analytics," said <strong>Phil Tenney, CIO at Asda.&nbsp;</strong></p> <p><strong>Asda </strong>operates more than 600 stores across the UK, employing over 135,000 people. The deal with <strong>HCL </strong>is part of Asda's plan to adopt a more agile approach towards application development and testing.</p> <p>This would allow the company to respond faster to business requirements and reduce time to market while driving better user experience and satisfaction.</p> <p>Through modernising its current data platform and adopting a new DevOps operating model, Asda will be able to break down the silos between internal IT teams, increase visibility into the application lifecycle and accelerate innovation across the business.</p>